Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s relationship with the country’s business elite is rapidly deteriorating over the response to coronavirus and his decision to back a local referendum to shutter a partly built $1.5 billion beer plant just as the economy is on the edge of a precipice.

On Monday, Lopez Obrador backed a weekend public consultation where the population of Mexicali, on Mexico’s northern border, voted to revoke operating licenses from a Constellation Brands Inc. brewery. The president justified the cancellation saying he needs to “listen to the people” even though participation was just under 5% of registered voters.

Business leaders say it’s a self-inflicted wound that will deter investment into Mexico amid a global market rout that has sunk the peso to a record low. The Consejo Coordinador Empresarial, the country’s top business lobby group known as the CCE, slammed the government’s position in its harshest language used yet against the Lopez Obrador administration.

“The signal that Mexico sends to the world is that the law is not respected here, and that there is no guarantee whatsoever for those seeking to invest, generate employment and development in our country,” the CCE said in a statement.Constellation Brands sells Corona and Modelo beer in the U.S. market. In the rest of the world, those brands are owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV. Criticism of the plant has centered around the use of water in the extremely arid region and the optics of using that resource for a product that’s then exported. Lopez Obrador’s top water official has said, however, there’s enough water to support the plant.

The relationship between AMLO, as the president is known, and Mexico’s business community is complicated, even if both sides have generally strived for a conciliatory tone. A populist who spent all his political career decrying the rich and powerful, Lopez Obrador won in a landslide election on a promise to break up crony capitalism and put Mexico’s poor first while keeping the nation’s longstanding pro-business stance.

The harsh rebuttal marks a potential fracture to the entente seen in the first 16 months of the new government. The CCE, led by Carlos Salazar, has become one of the main intermediaries between business leaders and Mexico’s president.

In a video press conference on Wednesday, Salazar said there was no “rupture” with the government. The vote, however, had been a “totally mistaken exercise” and there were signs government officials had mobilized votes against the project, he said.

‘Reputational Damage’

“On all fronts, the vote was illegal,” Gustavo de Hoyos, head of another business group called Coparmex, said during the same conference. “The biggest damage is the reputational damage to the country.”

The plant cancellation adds to the president’s pattern of putting political ends over property rights, even it there may be adverse economic effects. Lopez Obrador canceled a partly built $13 billion airport even before taking power in December 2018. He then challenged private sector gas pipeline projects, an issue that was later settled after negotiations with companies. His government has also said it could cut subsidies from private solar and wind parks, an issue that remains outstanding.

“Just when you think the Mexican president is ready to make the right decisions for the long-term prosperity of the Mexican people, he shows you how incredibly stubborn he can be,” said Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute in Washington.

“The spillover effect of the Constellation Brands project is going to be huge,” Wood said. “This is just gonna frighten investors even more than they have been already.”

Lopez Obrador’s press office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Earlier Wednesday, Lopez Obrador suggested there may have been wrongdoing involved in the beer factory’s permits, adding that he was not concerned about driving off investment.

Constellation Brands CEO Bill Newlands said in a statement on Tuesday that the company “will continue working with local authorities, government officials and members of the community on next steps related to our brewery construction project in Mexicali and options elsewhere in Mexico.”

No Stimulus

Lopez Obrador has also been criticized recently by business leaders over his handling of the coronavirus crisis and his refusal to implement stimulus plans to boost a plunging economy. This is a departure from other governments around the world that are rushing to shore up confidence as the virus has killed thousands and disrupted daily life for billions of people.

Mexico is facing widespread bankruptcies amid small- and medium-sized firms if it doesn’t offer a more robust plan to support them as parts of the economy shut down, said a former top government official from the previous administration who now represents the private sector. He requested anonymity in order not to disrupt talks with the government.

The economy is now seen shrinking 3% this year after a small contraction in 2019, with some analysts warning that the slump could mirror that of the so-called Tequila crisis in the mid-90s, when a currency devaluation sparked capital flight, tanking the nation’s economy and wiping out savings.

Carlos Serrano, chief economist for BBVA Mexico, said the Constellation Brands vote was a “worse sign for investment than the cancellation of the airport itself.” Serrano said in a video conference on Wednesday a poor response by the government could deepen the coming recession.

Business leaders have become increasingly concerned by the president’s tone in recent days. Instead of a coordinated response from Lopez Obrador’s government — as seen in Latin American peers like Chile — they received a lecture earlier this week from Mexico’s president about how there would be no bailouts or tax forgiveness for the private sector during this crisis, as Mexico’s previous “neoliberal” governments had done.

“They want us to throw around spending like in the past. Every time there was an emergency: throw money. No, we have to take care of the budget,” Lopez Obrador said Wednesday, repeating his austerity stance. He did say he would offer low or no-interest loans to small businesses.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. and Mexico were moving to restrict “nonessential travel” across the border just after midnight Friday night, as President Donald Trump cited concerns about disease-bearing migrants at the southern border spreading coronavirus and overwhelming the U.S. health care system.

There is no evidence linking Mexico or the southern border to the outbreak, which started in China, though medical experts and immigrant advocates have expressed concern about risks of contagion in detention facilities.

“Our nation’s top health care officials are extremely concerned about the great public health consequences of mass uncontrolled cross-border movement … even beyond but mostly during this global pandemic,” Trump said at a White House briefing on Friday, announcing that under public health emergency powers, the federal government would exclude migrants for the foreseeable future and also cut off tourism and shopping excursions.

Closures at the northern and southern borders were to start after midnight Friday. Lawful trade will continue, allaying fears of further economic blows from the pandemic, though anxiety along the border was intense.

“Every day, every hour, that travel, traffic is not normal will be a huge economic hit on us, especially for Texas,” IBC Bank executive vice president Gerald Schwebel, a leading authority on Texas-Mexico trade, said in Laredo. “We’re about to find out just how connected we are, and how essential everyone is.”

About 1 million Texas jobs are tied to trade.

Trump’s assertions about migrants bringing disease drew allegations of scapegoating and complaints that he was using the spread of COVID-19 as a pretext to push an anti-immigrant agenda, with echoes of his earlier claims that Mexico purposely sends rapists and murderers into the United States.

“Every week, border agents encounter thousands of unscreened, unvetted and unauthorized entries from dozens of countries, and we’ve had this problem for decades. For decades,” Trump said. “Now it’s a national emergency and … we can actually do something about it.”

Immigrant advocates blasted the president for vilifying immigrants.

“The house is burning down and he wants to talk about walls and borders,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice. “The incompetence is lethal. … He’s so determined to deflect responsibility that he’s trying to make the cornerstone of his response keeping foreigners out, rather than ramping tests up.”

Anxiety at the border

As news of the impending restrictions spread, Jacqueline Hernandez, 18, an American, made a dash across the border to pick up medicine, her favorite breakfast flakes – Choco Krispis – and to see her mother.

“Things are moving so fast that there may be new rules tomorrow,” she said on the Paso del Norte bridge as she walked from El Paso to Ciudad Juárez. “Sure, maybe I can go back and forth, but what about my mother, my family in Mexico?”

She looked around as people said farewell, some in tight embraces. Others, like her, headed across to see relatives or a dentist before midnight.

Carlos Cervantes, 22, is a U.S. citizen who lives in Juárez, studying computer science at the University of Texas at El Paso and working as a software integration engineer at DATAMARK, a business process outsourcing company, also on the U.S. side. Until recently, he crossed almost every day.

He plans to work and study from home, something not everyone can do.

“My life depends on U.S. jobs and education,” Cervantes said.

As worry and uncertainty boiled, Mario Duran, 51, said he feared being caught on the Mexico side. He lives in El Paso with his family and is wary of crossing into Juárez for his job at IG MEX, an assembly plant, or maquiladora, that makes electric motors.

“The Juárez community really needs the El Paso community, and the El Paso community really needs Juárez,” he said.

Tony Garza, a Brownsville native who served as ambassador to Mexico under President George W. Bush, said that closing the border would have a “profound economic impact” but that, fortunately, the current measures were well short of that, and a necessary sacrifice.

“While that will hurt economically, it’s not altogether different from what communities all across the U.S. and, soon, Mexico are having to do in order to bring the coronavirus under control,” he said.

Trump blames migrants

Trump argued that even “in normal times, these massive flows” strain the U.S. health care system but that “during a global pandemic … this would cripple our immigration system, overwhelm our health care system and severely damage our national security. We’re not going to let that happen.”

The White House did not cite such concerns when similar restrictions with Canada were announced two days earlier.

In speaking of “unchecked” migration as a threat, Trump was pointing to current, pre-pandemic levels.

He emphasized that the northern and southern borders were being treated the same.

“We are … increasingly concerned about are the number of illegal individuals coming into our country,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters at the White House.

“This is not about closing the border,” he said. “We want to make sure that cargo continues, trade continues, health care workers continue to be able to traverse that border.”

Texas’ economy relies heavily on trade with Mexico, and business and government leaders have worried about the impact of any border restrictions.

“I wouldn’t want to see the economy hammered further … by shutting down that trade,” Sen. John Cornyn said before the new restrictions were finalized. “I don’t think that’s a major source of spreading the coronavirus, if appropriate precautions are taken. But obviously, because we don’t have complete control of who comes across the southern border, I think there is a higher risk of somebody coming into the country who wittingly or unwittingly has the virus spreading it in the United States.”

Immigrant advocates expressed concern about Trump’s rhetoric and his drive to impose harsh immigration policies.

“It’s public safety first, because we’re in a public health emergency,” said Rep Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “But the president and Stephen Miller” — the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda — “should not use this as an excuse to carry out overly draconian immigration policies” and to “punish immigrants and asylum seekers.”

As of Friday afternoon, Mexico had more than 165 reported cases and one death attributed to COVID-19, though international health officials have criticized a lack of testing that may be keeping the tally low. The latest figures for the United States: 15,219 cases and more than 200 deaths.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard spoke by phone on Thursday about “coordinating a plan to restrict non-essential travel across our shared border in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the State Department.

Pompeo, at Trump’s side on Friday, said the restrictions “will last as long as we need to protect the American people from this virus.”

Earlier Thursday, the State Department issued its highest-level travel warning, a “Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory” urging U.S. citizens to “avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19.”

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said Mexico and its health authorities should take more precautions to slow the spread. “We love to be together, but we have to be cautious,” she said.

Arturo Sarukhan, former Mexican ambassador in Washington, said that “it will be painful to see a virus effectively bringing to a halt” – for now – the “constructive synergies that have made our transborder region one of the most economic and socially dynamic and culturally effervescent in the world.”

Northern border

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – who has been working from home for 10 days after his wife tested positive for COVID-19 – announced that the Canadian border would be closed to foreigners other than Americans.

On Wednesday, the U.S. and Canada announced an agreement to close their mutual borders to nonessential traffic. “Trade will not be affected,” Trump tweeted.

People caught crossing the border illegally are currently kept in custody for a week or more – much longer if they are requesting asylum. Under the new rules, they’ll be returned to their country of origin almost immediately.

“It’s going to be very rapid,” said Wolf, the acting homeland security secretary.

At the southern border, Mexicans will be returned through land ports. Other foreign citizens will be put on flights to their country of origin, he said.

At Amnesty International USA, advocacy director Charanya Krishnaswami decried the border restrictions as “cruel, short-sighted and opportunistic.”

“It’s hard to imagine travel more essential than the journey an asylum seeker makes to flee persecution,” she said. “Today’s restrictions, which empower the U.S. to push back people who lack proper documentation, may inexcusably prevent asylum-seekers and unaccompanied children — two of the populations at greatest risk of danger — from accessing safety.”

Trump and top aides announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, invoking Section 362 of the Public Health Service Act, was restricting entry along the land borders to protect migrants and officers who might interact with them.

“We’re talking about significant numbers of illegal immigrants. From this past October through February, DHS has processed more than 21,000 inadmissible aliens at the northern border and more than 151,000 inadmissible aliens at the southern border,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who said the president “is taking action to slow the spread of infectious disease via our border.”

“Social distancing” isn’t possible at detention centers, he said, and “migrants in these facilities are drawing on an American health care system that is already fighting the coronavirus pandemic.”

Advocates agree, and have demanded closure of such centers.

Dr. Ranit Mishori, senior medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights and a professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, noted that “across the country, officials have made the difficult – but necessary – public health decision to close high-density settings like schools, college campuses, government buildings, cultural institutions, sports arenas. The same strategy should apply to immigration detention facilities.”

Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp and Fiat Chrysler have all decided to halt production as the coronavirus continues to spread.

The automakers’ actions are sure to significantly impact local automotive suppliers like Glendale-based Strattec Security Corp. (NYSE: STRT), which supplies lock systems to the companies, and Adient plc (NYSE: ADNT), an automotive seating and interior manufacturer with corporate offices at 833 E. Michigan St. in downtown Milwaukee.

Ford announced Wednesday it will halt operations in the United States, Canada and Mexico. This is the latest action from the Coronavirus Task Force Ford formed alongside General Motors Co., Fiat Chrysler and the United Auto Workers union to implement protections for its employees. Fiat Chrysler and GM also are halting production, according to several media reports.

Ford (NYSE: F) will temporarily cease operations Thursday evening through March 30 to clean and sanitize the company’s plants. General Motors has temporarily suspended production at all North American manufacturing plants due to market conditions caused by the coronavirus.

The GM suspension will last until at least March 30, officials said in a statement. Over the next few weeks, officials will deep clean facilities.

Such work stoppages can have a harsh effect on Milwaukee-area manufacturers like Strattec and Adient. Following a more than a month-long strike at GM last year, Adient furlough all salaried non-plant employees in the U.S. for the weeks of Nov. 25 and Dec. 30, affecting about 1,300 employees. Strattec reported that the strike cost it about $3 million in revenue. And those impacts were for just one automaker. Both Strattec and Adient serve all three automakers.

In the meantime, Ford said it would be collaborating with the UAW on how to structure and restart plants with the health and safety of its workforce in mind.

“We’re continuing to work closely with union leaders, especially the United Auto Workers, to find ways to help keep our workforce healthy and safe — even as we look at solutions for continuing to provide the vehicles customers really want and need,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s president of North America, in a news release. “In these unprecedented times, we’re exploring unique and creative solutions to support our workforce, customers, dealers, suppliers and communities.”

Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, had been advocating for at least a two-week shutdown to contain the virus and alleviate worker fears. He could not comment at this time but said he would be meeting with officials Wednesday evening or Thursday morning to get the most accurate information.

According to a news release, one of the greatest challenges to getting back to work is adhering to social distancing on the production floors and between shift changes, as that’s when the majority of employees gather at entry and exit points. The auto giant has already ceased operations temporarily at several European plants as well.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s private sector has drawn up a broad package of proposed energy investments for the government worth almost $92 billion, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday, providing a potential lift to the country’s misfiring economy.

With 275 projects from 2020 to 2024 encompassing everything from power generation, storage and transportation to exploration and production of natural gas, the 1.787 trillion peso ($91.5 billion) package could significantly influence the government’s national energy plan, which is due to be presented soon.

The projects sketched out were the product of discussions between Mexico’s business coordinating council (CCE) and dozens of energy companies, including Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Mexico’s IEnova, a unit of U.S. firm Sempra Energy, France’s Engie SA and Italy’s Enel SpA, the document showed.

Under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico has pursued a more statist approach to the energy sector, but some members of his administration believe attracting more private capital is vital for lifting growth.

CCE President Carlos Salazar and Antonio del Valle, head of the Mexican Business Council (CMN), submitted the investment plan on Monday to Alfonso Romo, chief of staff to Lopez Obrador, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Energy Minister Rocio Nahle told Reuters she would be analyzing the private sector plan with Lopez Obrador in the coming days. The projects are due to be privately funded.

A CCE spokesman said a range of energy projects and potential investment amounts were still under discussion.

Romo’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A CMN spokesman had no comment.

A source at IEnova said the company had “actively” worked with the CCE to compile feasible projects. Shell, Enel and Engie did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Romo told a news conference on Tuesday the government was reviewing which projects would be part of the energy plan, and said Mexico needed to do more to encourage growth.

Mexico’s peso is seen vulnerable to further slumps with the U.S. election campaign in focus after ending the first quarter on a bad note due to fears over the coronavirus outbreak, a Reuters poll showed.

The currency is set to trade at 19.5250 per U.S. dollar in one year, close to its levels earlier this week, according to the median estimate of 12 strategists polled Feb. 28-March 3, before the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Tuesday.

The peso was 1.3% higher after the Fed took the decision aimed at protecting the world’s largest economy from the impact of the epidemic, giving some relief to Latin American foreign exchange markets.

The Mexican currency slumped 5.5% in the second half of last month, along with other emerging markets hit by a flight to safe-haven assets, as the coronavirus spread outside China. The fifth case in Mexico was confirmed this week.

It may risk further losses resulting from potential spurts of protectionist rhetoric before the U.S. election on Nov. 3. Last week, President Donald Trump said he could close the U.S. southern border to control the spread of the disease.

“As the election cycle in the U.S. picks up speed and headline volatility increases, we expect USD/MXN to resume an upward (weaker) trend into late Q1 and early Q2,” CIBC analysts wrote in a monthly report for March, before the Fed’s move.

In the run-up to the presidential vote of 2016, the peso lost 7.6% from its strongest level that year until election day, battered by Trump’s promise to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Mexico’s poor growth and optimistic budget assumptions are also likely to weigh on the peso. “We foresee these concerns returning to the main stage … as credit rating agencies assess the country’s fiscal stance in Q2 2020,” CIBC said.

Brazil’s real outlook is also beset by a disappointing economy and global headwinds from the impact of the epidemic, as reflected in its one-year median estimate that was 2.4% weaker than in February’s poll.

“Positive drivers for BRL have been overwhelmed by negative pressures from stronger USD amid risk-off sentiment and from domestic growth with downside surprises in 4Q19,” BofAML analysts wrote in a report last week.

MADRID, Spain (AP) — A Spanish court ruled Thursday that a former head of Mexico’s state oil company must remain in custody while an extradition case is heard against him.

A judge ruled that Emilio Lozoya is a flight risk, according to a statement from the National Court in Madrid.

Mexico issued international arrest warrants against Lozoya last year as a result of corruption investigations. Lozoya has denied wrongdoing.

When he was arrested Wednesday in the southeastern Spanish port of Malaga, Lozoya had a driving license bearing his photograph but a different name, according to the court statement. The judge took that as an attempt to evade justice.

Spanish authorities said Lozoya had entered Spain two days earlier, but a search had been on for him throughout Europe since May.

He is one of the most high-profile detentions for alleged corruption under Mexico’s current president, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has vowed to crack down on graft.

Lozoya was the director of Pemex between 2012 and 2016, during the administration of former President Enrique Peña Nieto. He had also been a key member of Peña Nieto’s presidential campaign.

Last year, López Obrador’s administration issued a number of orders for his arrest. One tied him to the bribery scandal of Brazilian construction behemoth Odebrecht and another to the sale of a fertilizer plant to Pemex at allegedly inflated prices.

The Spanish judge’s ruling referenced an “elaborate scheme” to use resources of illegal origin and participation in acts of corruption “tied to the offer of illegal contracts to his favor on the part of Pemex in exchange for a property.”

The ruling also implicated Lozoya’s sister and Alonso Ancira Elizondo, the former head Altos Hornos Mexicanos, who is still awaiting a Spanish court’s decision on his extradition to Mexico.

Lozoya and Ancira are tied by the sale of the fertilizer plant to Pemex.

Lozoya’s mother is already under house arrest in Mexico for her alleged role in her son’s schemes.

The Spanish government, citing Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, said Lozoya allegedly defrauded the government of $280 million.

The arrest was heralded as a clear win for López Obrador, who has made eradicating corruption the central pillar of his administration.

The president said Thursday at his morning press conference that investigators “must get to the bottom” of the case to hold all those involved responsible.

“There isn’t protection for anyone,” he said. “We proposed ending corruption and that is what we are doing. We’re not going to let anything go, zero corruption, zero impunity.”

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican bank Grupo Financiero Banorte said on Sunday it had signed an agreement with Sinosure, China’s Export and Credit Insurance Corp., which seeks to finance projects in Mexico that involve imports from the Asian giant.

Banorte did not disclose the value of the agreement in a brief statement.

Under the terms of the deal, Banorte, the bank with the biggest weight on Mexico’s benchmark S&P/BVM IPC index, will offer credit to Mexican businesses and other entities that seek to purchase Chinese goods or services.

Sinosure will in turn provide insurance and credit guarantees to Banorte to support Chinese exports to Mexico, the Mexican bank said in a statement.

China is Mexico’s second biggest trading partner, accounting for about 10% of imports and exports between the two nations, according to data from Mexico’s economy ministry.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican auto exports posted their first decline in a decade last year, while production in the industry registered its biggest fall over the same period, official data showed on Wednesday, the latest evidence of weakness plaguing the economy.

Auto production slipped by 4.1% to 3,750,841 units in 2019, national statistics agency INEGI said. That was the second annual decline in succession and the biggest since a drop of some 28% during the Mexican recession of 2009.

Exports fell by 3.4% to 3,333,586 units last year, the data showed, marking the first annual decline since 2009.

In December, auto output tumbled by 12.7% to 208,073 units and exports by 16.7% to 229,227 units.

Mexico exports the bulk of its manufactured goods to the United States, where industrial activity has been slowing.

Mexico’s economy has been battling to stave off recession since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took power in December 2018 vowing to lift economic growth to 4% per year.

Instead, the economy suffered a mild contraction in the first six months of 2019, and economists say there is a risk Mexican gross domestic product will show its first negative annual growth in a decade when final data are published.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico raised its national minimum wage 20% Monday, but it still doesn’t amount to even $1 an hour.

The Labor Department said the lowest legal wage will be 123.22 pesos a day starting Jan. 1, or about $6.50 at current exchange rates.

That is a boost from the 120.68-peso minimum wage prevailing this year.

While the increase well above the 3% annual inflation rate, it is barely enough to keep one person over the poverty line, even though Mexico’s constitution says it should be enough to support a worker and his family.

The minimum wage in a narrow stretch of territory along the border with the United States is higher than in the rest of the country, due to higher living costs. Starting next year the border minimum will rise about 5%, to $9.75 a day.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador appeared at a ceremony to announce the increase, accompanied by business leaders.

“I am aware that we still have a long way to go, because we feel behind,” López Obrador said, referring to decades in which the purchasing power of the minimum wage declined in real terms.

López Obrador acknowledged that minimum wages “cannot be decided by decree,” and he thanked business leaders for supporting the decision to raise the minimum.

The head of the Business Coordinating Council, Carlos Lomelín, called the increase “great news for Mexico.”

Mexico has been the object of criticism for keeping wages artificially low, something critics say has been used to lure auto assembly and manufacturing jobs from the United States.

But the country’s domestic economy has also suffered from a lack of internal demand because of low wages

MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mexican business leaders on Wednesday began poring over texts of a new stricter trade deal with the United States and Canada, looking for details of how more intrusive enforcement of labor rules in Mexico would affect their operations.

Moises Kalach, a leader of the CCE business lobby, which represented Mexico’s private sector in the negotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that will replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), said that businesses felt sidelined.

“We would have liked to have been (in the negotiations) more … to give our opinion more. This is the reality, we participated but not as much as we would have liked,” said Kalach.

USMCA was signed more than a year ago to replace NAFTA, but Democrats controlling the U.S. House of Representatives insisted on major changes to labor and environmental enforcement before bringing it to a vote.

In an unusual display of bipartisan and cross-border cooperation in the Trump era of global trade conflicts, top officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States on Tuesday signed a fresh overhaul of the quarter-century-old trade pact.

Some Mexican business groups bemoaned a lack of clarity and conflicting information on how the rules would actually be enforced under the deal, the first text of which only became public on Wednesday. An official at the truck and bus manufacturing association said he was studying the accord. CCE said it was still waiting for the documents to be translated into Spanish by lawyers.

Before seeing the fine print, Gustavo Hoyos, president of employers federation Coparmex and a vocal critic of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, called the government “a bad negotiator.”

Others were more positive.

“There were many things we would have liked to have seen but in general we can say this deal is very beneficial for Mexico, it will bring investment to the country and I have no doubt will make the North American region more competitive,” said Antonio del Valle, head of the Mexican Business Council.

Mexico’s Economy Minister Graciela Marquez predicted the deal would boost Mexico’s flagging growth once it becomes law. U.S. and Canadian lawmakers signaled the deal may not reach a vote until early next year.Mexico’s peso was up more than 0.5% on Wednesday at 19.47 pesos to the dollar MXN=D2, after strengthening for five straight days ahead of the deal on reports of successful talks. The Mexican benchmark stock index .MXX rose more than 0.7%, after gaining 1.63% on Tuesday, its biggest daily rise in more than two months. Mexican 10-year bonds were steady, after rising four basis points on Tuesday, trading with a yield of 6.85%.

ENFORCEMENT MECHANISM

The deal included new bilateral mechanisms under which the United States and Canada can create panels of labor experts to investigate union complaints at Mexican factories.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that under changes to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Mexico will be able to bring labor complaints against companies and workplaces in the United States. A Canadian source said the mechanism established with Canada was also reciprocal.”

The experts, who would include foreigners and be chosen from a list provided by each of the affected countries, will be able to penalize goods and services exported from that plant if violations of the freedom to organize or collectively bargain are detected, according to the amended agreement posted on the United States Trade Representative’s website.

Mexico’s chief negotiator Jesus Seade sought to play down the impact of such “rapid panels,” saying he had fended off U.S. union demands to place foreign labor inspectors in Mexican factories.

The rapid panels would be formed after three months and only in response to repeated complaints, Seade said.

Canada said that, under the new deal, the burden of proof has been reversed, in that failure to comply with an obligation in the chapter is now presumed to be “in a manner affecting trade or investment between the parties,” unless the defending party can demonstrate otherwise.

“If I’m reading this correctly, now the country defending itself is guilty until proven otherwise,” said a former senior Mexican USMCA negotiator.

“This can become an incentive to block trade … you just gave the U.S. an instrument to impose tariffs and close markets, because it is going to be accusing you of not complying with your labor standards.”

Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute in Washington, said “that while the word ‘inspections’ has been avoided, ‘facility-based enforcement’ and in-country ‘labor attaches’ will raise the specter of foreign interference for some in Mexico.”